Two men convicted of three murders a half-century ago will be in a Seattle courtroom Thursday as one of the pair seeks exoneration in one of the murders.
The murders took place in 1965. Arthur Aiken and Antonio Wheat, both serving in the U.S. Air Force, carried out a string of stick-ups at Seattle gas stations. In the course of their crime spree, three gas station employees were killed by the pair - Owen Fair, Daniel Wolf and James Harp.
Aiken and Wheat were both sentenced to hang for the crimes after blaming each other for being the triggerman in the brutal murders. All three victims were shot in the head at close range with a .22 caliber pistol. The death sentences were later commuted to life in prison after the U.S. Supreme Court banned executions.
Aiken now is seeking a dismissal of his conviction or new trial for the murder of James Harp, according to court records filed with the King County Superior Court. Aiken's filing cites a 2015 interview Wheat gave to Seattle Met Magazine in which Wheat said Aiken was asleep in the getaway car when he single-handedly murdered Harp.
The 2015 magazine interview portrays Wheat as a man who has made good on his promise to be of service to others while serving in prison, describing him as "The Morgan Freeman of Monroe" - a reference to the character "Red" in the 1994 film "The Shawshank Redemption." Wheat is described as having befriended prison superintendents and working to defuse tensions inside prison walls.
Wheat also reportedly met with the mother of one of the victims, relating her son's last words. The mother, Ada Wolf, was said to have told Wheat she forgave him for killing her son, Owen.
In the years since the killings, Wheat has told three different stories about Harp's murder. When he appears Thursday in Judge Veronica Galvan's courtroom, will Wheat repeat the story he told to Seattle Met, or will he insist Aiken as directly involved in Harp's murder?
No matter what becomes of Aiken's case, both men are scheduled to be released from prison in the coming years - Wheat in November 2020, and Aiken in April 2021. Both men will be in their mid-70s at that time.
KING 5's Mike Baker contributed to this report
